PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



151 



terranean. The little plants grow 

 freely in borders of well-drained sandy 

 loam, but their home is the rock- 

 garden. As the stems are prostrate, 

 a good effect will come from planting 

 them where the roots may descend 

 into deep earth, and the shoots fall 

 over the face of rocks at about the 

 level of the eye. Easily raised from 

 seed, and thrive in sandy loam. There 

 are many species, but few are in 

 gardens, owing to their inhabiting 

 countries often under the rule of the 

 Turk, and for that and other reasons 

 not so easy to introduce as the plants 

 of the Alps and Pyrenees. All the 

 cultivated kinds are dwarf, and may 

 be well grouped with rock plants on 

 the warmer slopes of the rock-garden. 

 Among the most charming of 

 plants for gardens, let us hope the 

 future will see many of the kinds 

 introduced and grown. The following 

 is an abstract of a paper on them in 

 the Garden, by Mr W. B. Hemsley, 

 of Kew. 



The geographical range of the genus 

 is from the Pyrenees to the Western 

 Himalaya. There are, perhaps, half- 

 a-dozen in Europe, including the 

 beautiful JE. c&pecefolium, better known 

 as Hutcliinsia rotundifolia and cepece- 

 folia. One only reaches India, where 

 it is found at an elevation of from 

 12,000 to 16,000 feet, and the re- 

 mainder are natives of the countries 

 indicated above. Nearly all the 

 species are natives of alpine regions, 

 and grow naturally in stony or rocky 

 places, and many of them are reported 

 from chalky districts. The perennial 

 species will, therefore, require to be 

 kept tolerably dry at the root ; a 

 light soil in a well-drained border, 

 or a place in the rock-garden, will 

 best suit them. Old plants should 

 be replaced by young ones as often 



as convenient. These may be raised 

 from seed or cuttings, which is better 

 done in a cool frame or pit. The 

 annual species, excepting ^E. Bux- 

 baum.ii, are not, so far as we know, 

 in cultivation. In habit and foliage 

 JEthionemas, especially the half shrubby 

 species, have very much the aspect 

 of some of the woody Candytufts, but 

 the petals are all equal in size. The 

 flower-spikes are usually very dense, 

 and the seed-vessel relatively large, 

 and very much crowded, so that in 

 some species, as JE. Buxbaumii, they 

 bear some resemblance to the catkins 

 of the common Hop. The flowers are 

 usually some tint of red or lilac, or 

 combination of the two. A few species 

 have yellow flowers, and there are 

 white -flowered varieties of several 

 species. About fifty species are 

 known, all natives of the mountains 

 of Europe, Asia Minor, Syria, and 

 Persia. 



.ffithionema cepesefolium (Iberidella; 

 Hutchinsia rotundifolia, Hort. Kew). A 

 densely-tufted, more or less glaucous- 

 green, glabrous barb, with a long perennial 

 tap root, that burrows deeply amongst 

 stones. Stems, 3 to 6 inches long, ascend- 

 ing ; leaves, mostly opposite, small fleshy, 

 one-third to three-quarters of an inch 

 long, those from the root broadly obovate 

 or almost orbicular, quite entire, or ob- 

 scurely toothed, those on the stem sessile, 

 obtuse, or auricled at the base ; flowers, 

 half an inch in diameter, in cylindrical, 

 crowded, erect racemes, pale lilac with 

 a yellow eye ; pedicels, horizontal. A 

 native of the Alps of Europe, where it 

 is widely dispersed, and abundant in 

 many parts of Switzerland. 



JB. trinervium. Leaves, hard, more 

 or less distinctly three-nerved, oblong or 

 narrowly lanceolate, the lower ones 

 narrowed at the base, upper ones obtusely 

 heart-shaped and stem-clasping. Flowers, 

 rather large, white, seed-vessel oblong 

 linear, rounded or truncate at the top, 

 crowned with the equally long style. 



